British troops serving in Afghanistan will be put at risk by the withdrawal of RAF Harrier jets, it has been claimed.

By James Kirkup, Political Correspondent

3:44PM GMT 21 Nov 2008

The Harriers, which provide vital air support to British ground forces fighting the Taliban will be replaced with Tornadoes in April next year.

The Ministry of Defence insists the decision will not change the military capabilities available to Armed Forces in Afghanistan, but some Army commanders are privately concerned the new aircraft will be less useful than those they will replace.

Those fears have been heightened by leaked internal MoD figures showing that Tornadoes regularly fail to take off because of technical problems.

The figures, which were disclosed in Parliament this week, suggest that the Tornado suffers from regular technical failures when operating in hot, dusty conditions like those in Afghanistan.

The MoD figures were passed to Mark Lancaster, a Conservative frontbencher, who said they show the decision to withdraw the Harriers is dangerous and mistaken.

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Mr Lancaster said the figures show that more than one in ten Tornado take-offs in front line operations have to be aborted because of technical problems.

Current figures show the Tornado has a "ground abort rate" of 11.6 per cent, Mr Lancaster said. By contrast, the Harrier has only a 0.34 per cent abort rate.

Mr Lancaster is a former officer with the Queens Gurkha Engineers who served in Afghanistan with the Territorial Army in 2006. He said the figures show the proposed withdrawal is a "very grave mistake" and a "severe risk" to British troops.

He said: "Why are we accepting that one in 10 times a Tornado will not get off the ground and therefore one in 10 times it will not get to serve our soldiers on the ground on the front line?"

Budget pressures have forced the MoD to review the future of many vehicles and equipment programmes.

Vehicles deployed on operations may be exempt from that review, and Mr Lancaster suggested that the RAF was sending the Tornadoes to Afghanistan to ensure they do not face future cuts.

He said: "I am assured that the RAF is concerned that, all of a sudden, the Tornado fleet is beginning to look exposed. It believes that by ensuring that it has a role in Afghanistan, we can give the Tornado fleet and its future a degree of protection."

To resolve some of the technical problems with the Tornado before it goes to Afghanistan, the MoD is spending £40 million upgrading the Harriers as an "urgent operational requirement".

Kevan Jones, a defence minister, insisted that the aircraft were being rotated in order to relieve pressure on the Harriers' crew.

"We need to keep the training, and the quality of the people who fly the Harrier, up to date," he said. "It is not about cuts; it is about providing what is actually needed."